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Contributor

Paul Curtis Daw

Contributor

Paul Curtis Daw

United States

Paul Curtis Daw is a lawyer-turned-translator. His translation of Évelyne Trouillot’s novel, Memory at Bay, is published by the University of Virginia Press. His translation of Olivier Targowla’s novel, Narcisse on a Tightrope, is forthcoming from Deep Vellum’s Dalkey Archive imprint, and Akashic Books will soon publish several of his story translations in Paris Noir: The Suburbs. His renditions of stories and other texts from France, Haiti, Belgium, Quebec, Reunion, and Swiss Romandy appear in Words Without Borders, Subtropics, Asymptote Blog, Indiana Review, Cimarron Review, and Massachusetts Review (forthcoming), among other publications, and in four annual editions of Best European Fiction. He is a former officer and director of the American Literary Translators Association.

Articles by Paul Curtis Daw

Respecting the Diversity of Creativity

By Évelyne Trouillot

It would be naive to speak of editorial decisions without taking into account power relationships and established patterns of prejudice that undergird the publishing industry.

Translated from French by Paul Curtis Daw

from “My Body Laid Bare”

By Stéphane Lambert

My face was more akin to Florentine portraits of androgynous ephebes than to paintings of ancient heroes.

Translated from French by Paul Curtis Daw

Detour

By Évelyne Trouillot

“Trouillot’s most striking childhood memories of the Duvalier dictatorship remain the image of Duvalier’s militiamen searching her family’s and neighbor’s houses for publications and other works of art deemed subversive.”—Edwidge Danticat

Translated from French by Paul Curtis Daw

Multilingual

Primal Needs

By Évelyne Trouillot

Was there still a second floor? Don’t think about it.

Translated from French by Paul Curtis Daw

Multilingual

The Iron Caterpillar

By J. William Cally

He had the sense of a giant creature slithering within the tunnel.

Translated from French by Paul Curtis Daw

Brine, Blood, and Mother’s Milk

By Évelyne Trouillot

I still tremble from the child's furtive attention.

Translated from French by Paul Curtis Daw

Multilingual

Gandhi’s Admirer

By Pan Bouyoucas

And I'm supposed to become an accomplice to these Frankensteins!

Translated from French by Paul Curtis Daw

From the Translator: Paul Curtis Daw on Translating Vincent Mondiot

By Paul Curtis Daw

While leisurely making my way through a collection of winning entries from the 2006 French young writer’s competition, I was brought up short by “Ils viennent toujours en l’automne.” …

They Always Come in the Autumn

By Vincent Mondiot

The two who flanked the tallest one wore strange gas masks, giving them the appearance of insects with round, dull glass eyes.

Translated from French by Paul Curtis Daw

The Black Marne

By Jocelyn Dupré

When she hugged me from behind and put her cold hands on my chest, my own hand holding the razor twitched.

Translated from French by Paul Curtis Daw

In the Shade of the Almond Tree

By Évelyne Trouillot

Why doesn't your mother come back to look for you, constantly asked the woman.

Translated from French by Paul Curtis Daw